Devoted gran fights to take care of daughter's children

Sep 20 2009 by Katy Simpson, Sunday Sun

“When I leave the children it’s heartbreaking. It’s hard for us, so I can’t imagine what it must be like for the children. I would rather they lived with us because we are family, than with strangers they don’t know.

“I have quite a lot of family, and a lot of support, so they would be well looked after. I would do anything to get them here. It’s what my daughter would have wanted.”

Christine holds down two jobs to make ends meet, working as a cleaner at Newcastle University and at a fruit and nut shop in the city’s Grainger Market.

But she says would give all of that up to spend time with the children.

“I would happily give up the next 10 years or more to dedicate to them,” said Christine, who lives with husband George, 48, a concierge for Your Homes Newcastle.

“The main thing is that they have their family around them.”

Christine is still haunted by the memories of the day her daughter died.

“When the police came I just collapsed,” she said. “I remember the police picking me up and putting me on the bed. I was just trying to get it sunk in to my head. It still hasn’t sunk in really.

“The little ones don’t understand because they were too young when she died. But when they see us, they say ‘Mam, mam’, because of the resemblance.”

Her daughter died at a rocky time in her young life, and Christine said it was agony to watch her life going downhill.

She said: “I could see her going from good to bad. She just fell in with the wrong crowd.”

Social services said they are unable to comment on individual cases.